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Go back to when the COVID War began.
The political dictators across the United States determined that big chain stores were “essential” and they could do business as usual, but most small businesses were not and were forced to close down.
But when it came to selling booze with its high federal, state and city taxes—money that politicians get so they can keep sucking off the public tit—liquor stores were deemed “essential.”
And now, more of the cost of fighting the COVID War is being tallied. The number of alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. increased significantly in 2020—the first year of COVID-19 lockdowns—jumping from 78,927 the previous year to 99,017, according to a newly released study.
The study was conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health.
The New York Times reported that the study included information produced from death certificates that included alcohol as either an underlying cause or contributing cause.
TRENDPOST: These findings come as no surprise to Trends Journal subscribers. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have reported extensively on the impact that the COVID War would have on the public’s mental and physical health. (See “LOCKDOWN MADNESS: CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE,” “COVID LOCKDOWN: MENTAL ILLNESS BLUES” and “MORE LOCKDOWNS= RISE IN ALCOHOLIC LIVER DISEASE.”)
The New York Post noted that 74,408 people between 16 and 64 died from alcohol-related issues in 2020. That same year, 74,075 of those under 65 died from COVID-19, which means alcohol claimed more lives than the virus in that age group.
According to researchers:
- Deaths due to alcohol-associated liver disease increased 22.4 percent.
- Deaths due to underlying mental and behavioral disorders increased 35.1 percent.
- Deaths due to opioid overdoses involving alcohol as a contributing cause increased 40.8 percent.
- Deaths due to overdoses on synthetic opioids other than methadone, mainly fentanyl, involving alcohol as a contributing cause increased 59.2 percent.
- Overall, the increase in alcohol-related deaths was 25 percent.
The largest increase in death rates by age was for people aged 35 to 44 years (from 22.9 to 32.0 per 100,000 [39.7%]) and 25 to 34 years (from 11.8 to 16.1 per 100,000 [37.0%]).
Increases in rates were similar for females (from 13.7 to 17.5 per 100,000 [27.3%]) and males (from 42.1 to 52.6 per 100,000 [25.1%]), the study said.
Previous studies have shown that there have been increases in transplants for liver disease and emergency department visits for alcohol withdrawal during the outbreak.
While much of normal life was locked down, governments made sure that liquor stores stayed open. In June 2020, Bloomberg reported that sales for liquor delivery services were up 400 percent.
We reported during the onset of the outbreak that alcohol consumption jumped in China about 7 percent during its first lockdown.
A study in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry published on 14 April stated that the extended lockdown “showed higher rates of anxiety, depression, hazardous and harmful alcohol use, and lower mental wellbeing than usual ratio. Results also revealed that young people aged 21 to 40 years are in a more vulnerable position in terms of their mental health conditions and alcohol use.”
We had forecast for months that drug addiction, legal and illegal, would also continue to claim more victims in the coming years as the “Greatest Depression” worsens, civil unrest escalates, military clampdowns tighten… and geopolitical tensions intensify.
TRENDPOST: We have long reported on the devastating impact that lockdowns had on society, and it is even more disheartening to learn that they did nothing—and even worsened the virus’ toll on the public. (See “LOCKDOWNS CREATE CHILD SUICIDE EPIDEMIC” and “LOCKDOWN LIES IGNORED BY PRESSTITUTES. DISMISSED BY D.C.”)
Economists at Johns Hopkins University researched meta-analysis of multiple studies and said they found that the lockdowns during the first COVID-19 wave in the U.S. and Europe only reduced mortality by 0.2 percent.
“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument,” the study authors wrote.
Most of the lockdowns in the U.S. have ended, but China continues to pursue its “zero-COVID” policy, and has implemented them again in major cities and Hong Kong, which we have reported could entice Western nations to again follow China’s lead in fighting the COVID war by imposing new rounds of mandates and vaccine requirements.